All roads lead to...

I'm in Pittsburgh at the Momentum festival, at City Theatre. Watching new plays. Spent all of today at a workshop for the musical they're working on, "Long Story Short" by Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda. It's the story of a man and a woman from their first date, through the ups and downs of their long, tumultous relationship. They drive each other crazy, they face tragedy, they part, they find each other again, they grow old together. The songs are funny and sweet and shmaltzy and it was a pleasure to hear them worked all day. I have several favorite songs, but the refrain that sticks talks about "sitting in our rocking chairs, watching grandkids playing on the lawn."

The Psyche Project, my big play for the summer, is about the many hurdles that a woman goes through to deserve the man (god, actually) she loves.

Have you noticed that, when you're working on a play, forces tend to conspire to teach you the lessons you need in order to write your play?

This is the Summer of Love. By which I mean "the summer in which the Universe has decided to bonk me over the head with the lessons about love that I had neglected to this point." Perhaps substitute "clobber" for "bonk". Learning, real learning, hurts like hell.

I am, intermittently, a total hysterical psychopath and a Love Yogi, as Zen as they come. I'm terrified and totally at peace.

Ah, but how does this relate to playwriting? Funny you should ask. Here's what I've got so far...

1) In playwriting, as in love, there are moments when you will feel discomfort (even pain). You will want to burn your scripts, you will want to erase your hard drive, you will want to run screaming from the work at hand. Don't. Breathe. Stretch into the hard places...those are the ones that have something to teach you.
2) In playwriting, as in love, there will be people who will tell you to abandon ship. They are not always wrong. They are not always right.
3) In playwriting, as in love, you must seek the balance between patience and caution. Patience is your friend. Caution (ie fear) is not.
4) In playwriting, as in love, you can make all the plans you want, develop all the outlines and checklists you want...but eventually you have to let go and see where the moment takes you...which will usually be someplace much messier, and more full of life, than whatever you'd planned. If you're looking for perfection, forget it. "Perfect" is another word for "dead."
5) In playwriting, as in love, it ISN'T ABOUT YOU. It isn't even about the play. It's about the play's relationship to the audience, about the messy, magical things that happen in the SPACE BETWEEN you and another opinionated, fragile, resilient, imperfect human being and everything that THEY bring to the table.
6) In playwriting, as in love, all I can do...all any of us can do...is articulate a best guess, pour another cup of tea, and face the blank page.

Yeah. I sorta knew some of this stuff, but it's only really starting to sink in now. And there's probably more coming. Bonk.